A Friend in Need
by koso26
Summary: Harry gets sick and Neville is there to help him. Paraquel to 'Potions Master in Need' which you don't necessarily have to read to understand . Set in Harry's first year. AU sick!Harry caring!Neville


_This story was actually written for Healer Pomfrey's Summer Writing Challenge, but due to several reasons did never get published._

_The way it is written, it is a 'paraquel' (does that word exist?) to 'Potions Master in Need'. But you don't have to read the other story...it's just that I had an idea for a sequel for both of the stories, but therefore things in the story had to develop 'at the same time'... Anyway - maybe there will be a sequel one day... for now, this story has to do. Hope you'll enjoy it!_

_Disclaimer: I don't owe the characters. I just borrow them from time to time, to carefully play with them, before safely putting them back._

* * *

It was Wednesday afternoon and most of the first year Gryffindors were gathered in the common room to work on their transfiguration assignment. Since Professor McGonagall had fallen ill with the flu two days ago transfiguration class was cancelled and assignments were given out.

For the umpteenth time Harry carefully swallowed to see if the pain in his throat was still present. Ever since he woke up the day before swallowing caused a very unpleasant feeling in his throat which grew worse by the hour. Now a little headache started to build up, too. And Harry was sure it wouldn't be long until he would be feeling dizzy and start running a temperature.

Harry knew the symptoms. He did have them before; about twice every year. His cousin Dudley happened to have it once, too. He had been awfully whiney and aunt Petunia had taken Dudley to see a doctor who had diagnosed him with tonsillitis and had obviously prescribed a lot of fussing and privileges along with the obligatory antibiotics. Dudley was allowed to stay an entire week in bed watching TV all day and having tons of ice-cream to soothe his sore throat. Aunt Petunia was fussing over him, ordering Harry to get Dudley everything he wanted…and Dudley wanted a lot!

When Harry had tonsillitis nobody took him to the doctor and he didn't get antibiotics. But he soon realized that certain things did help: wearing a scarf, drinking cold water (or eating snow in the winter), gargling with salt or olive oil and drinking tea with lemon and honey. It needed more time to go away, but usually after about two or three weeks the symptoms were gone for about another six months.

Now, it seemed, he had come down with tonsillitis again, but this time, he was at Hogwarts. He didn't know what to do. His pink scarf, that he used to wear only at nights so nobody at the Dursley's would notice, was still there, in his cupboard under the stairs. He didn't have olive oil, lemon or anything else and wished he had an idea how to conjure things.

Harry slowly got up and went to the bathroom; he needed to drink some cold water. It would only bring temporary relief, but this would be better than nothing. When he got back Hermione shot him a slightly worried glance, but didn't say anything.

Neville caught a glimpse of Hermione's glance and jumped in with the question. "You're all right, Harry?"

Harry just simply nodded and let himself drop back into his seat, before he assured "I'm just a little tired…didn't sleep well last night!"

This seemed to satisfy the two and they continued working until it was time for Dinner.

Harry wasn't overly hungry and swallowing felt like hell, but he knew better than to draw attention to himself and ate a bowl of soup. Before he got up, he nicked one of the salt shakers off the table to take with him. While everybody else went to the common room to spend the evening, Harry excused himself to bed, mentioning again, that he didn't sleep well the night before. Nobody got suspicious, and Harry retired to the dormitory after a round of gargling with salt water in the bathroom.

***

When Harry woke up the next morning he didn't feel better at all. In contrary. The headache was now more disturbing and he felt a little cold. But he decided to toughen it out and not let it show. He wasn't allowed to get sick at the Dursley's, why should it now be different just because he was at Hogwarts. He got up, drank some cold water, did some gargling and got ready for the day making sure to wear an extra sweater. Breakfast passed uneventful. Harry settled for some scrambled eggs as they were easy to swallow and two cups of tea with honey to help his sore throat. It didn't help much though.

The first morning lesson was charms. Harry was glad that they only practiced wand movements and not incantations as he noticed his voice was now becoming slightly scratchy. He was even gladder, that the second morning lesson was transfiguration. Since Professor McGonagall was still in the hospital wing they could spent the time working on their assignments either in the classroom, in their common room, or in the library. Harry decided for the library. He had remembered the charms introduction in the first week of classes when the Professor had talked about the different kinds of charms; one of them were concealment charms. Now Harry used the time to search for a charm to hide the scratchiness in his voice. He found a not too complicated charm and threw it on himself. And it worked. He also searched for a charm that would conceal the obvious signs of a fever, but the only charm he found was too complicated. Harry sighed and put the books away, before he left for the dungeons as potions was the next and last morning class. He managed to blow up his cauldron as well as Neville did and Professor Snape took house points off Gryffindor for the two of them doing so. Harry was pretty angry because the reason for messing up in potions was Professor Snape standing behind him breathing into his neck waiting for him to fail. And sure thing, it didn't take long until Harry failed.

Harry blamed his anger with Snape to be the reason for him having no appetite and skipped lunch. He gargled, drank more cold water and rested a little bit. He had been drinking cold water all morning whenever he had a chance to, but it seemed not to help at all. He felt worse and worse as the time went on. He had thought about asking one of the House-elves if they could give him some olive oil or lemon, but he had no idea how to contact them and was too afraid anybody would notice that he was sick anyway.

While he was resting, Harry pondered if he should just skip the two afternoon classes, divination and history of magic. He didn't have to come up with a decision as sleep overcame him. When Ron came into the dormitory to fetch Harry in time for class, he found Harry sleeping sound on his bed.

When he shook Harry's shoulder, Harry just stirred a little bit without even opening his eyes and mumbled "Go away, I'm tired…"

So Ron decided to let Harry sleep figuring Harry had to be very tired because of not sleeping well again the night before, since he had noticed Harry tossing and turning in his sleep.

Harry woke up in time for dinner, when Ron and Neville came into the dormitory arguing over whether Ron was snoring when he fell asleep in History of Magic or not. Since sleeping had helped his headache to clear up a little bit, Harry joined them for dinner in order to not draw attention to him feeling not well. It seemed to work. Nobody got suspicious and Harry manage to eat something throat friendly again. The evening was spent over homework again and when it was time for bed, Harry was glad to rest his aching head after gargling again which didn't seem to have any effect on his sore throat.

***

On Friday morning Harry was almost ready to admit that he was sick. He didn't feel well at all, but he got up and had some tea with honey for breakfast, which again didn't really help. First morning class was defense. Thankfully it was one of the rare times Professor Quirrell's class didn't give him an awful headache. Thereafter they had transfiguration which again was due to Professor McGonagall's illness an off-period. Harry mostly spent the time staring at his books and his blank parchment hoping nobody would notice his lack of energy and concentration. The last morning class was herbology. They had to re-plant some herbs and learned about their use for healing potions. Nothing too strenuous and time went by rather quickly.

Not being hungry in slightest, Harry followed the others to lunch anyway, glad when realized that one of the options for lunch was chicken-noodle-soup. So he ate a bowl and noticed with relief that the warmth of the broth felt actually good against his raw throat.

Flying lessons were next on the schedule. Madam Hooch had them practice kick-offs and landings. Harry managed to do pretty well and even if he usually loved flying, today he couldn't wait for the class to be over. He felt dizzy and was struggling to properly stay on his broom and not fall off. And finally class was over. Only one more class to go and the week would be over. But of all subjects this class had to be potions.

Harry sighted and slowly dragged his tired and aching body down into the dungeons. A feeling of lightheadedness and a nagging headache were now accompanying his sore throat which now actually felt like it was on fire, and he was freezing even if he was sweating. He dropped into the seat next to Neville and sighted again.

Neville turned to face him. "You okay?" he whispered.

Harry nodded carefully to not aggravate his headache any further. "Yeah, I'm fine…"

Neville was not convinced "You sure?"

"I said I'm fine!" Harry growled.

"You don't look fine to me…you're flushed, you're sweating…"Neville started only to be interrupted by Harry.

"Will you leave it alone already? I said I'm fine…I just had a hard time in flying lesson to get my broom under control. It was actually pretty hard work…that's why I'm flushed and sweating!"

Neville bought the explanation. He, too, had had a hard time to get the broom in grip. Just when he wanted to voice this to Harry, Professor Snape began the lesson. They had to brew a basic healing salve. Instead of breathing into the students' necks Professor Snape sat at his desk, grading essays. Nevertheless, Harry managed to mess up even without the breathing. Because, sure enough, after a while Harry's potion started to hiss angrily and grey smoke escaped from the cauldron. Thankfully Hermione was quick enough to throw a stasis charm on Harry's cauldron preventing it from exploding. Professor Snape shot up from his place behind the teacher's desk and strode over to Harry, menacingly glaring at him, before he took off ten points from Gryffindor for Harry's carelessness. He just finished scolding, when Neville's cauldron exploded with a big bang all over Neville and the students around him. Professor Snape turned around and continued his rant now taking fifty points off Gryffindor for Neville being such a dunderhead, as he voiced it. With a flick of his wand he cleaned up the mess and released the students five minutes early with a menacing glare.

Harry was glad that classes were over and slowly made his way to the Gryffindor common room. After blankly staring at his books again for a while instead of actually starting his homework he decided to skip dinner and get into bed instead. He was freezing, his world was spinning and his throat still seemed to be on fire. Unable to find a comfortable spot in his bed which was neither to warm nor to cold, he kept tossing and turning around until Neville entered the dormitory.

Neville slowly made his way to Harry's bed and hesitantly sat down on the edge of it carefully peeling Harry's blanket back a little bit to see his face.

"Harry, you still want to tell me you're fine?" he asked quietly. Harry looked at him tiredly.

"Really, I'm fine…just a little tired…" Harry answered yawning.

But Neville didn't buy it. "You're still flushed and sweating…" he stated while hesitantly extending a hand to rest on Harry's forehead "…and you feel pretty warm. I thing you're running a temperature."

Harry tried to put as much strength into his voice as possible "No, I'm not. You're hand is just freezing. And I had my head underneath the blanket…" Harry trailed off.

This time, Neville didn't buy Harry's excuse. But he wasn't so sure about the hand. So he put his hands together, to see if they had the same temperature and then rested one hand on Harry's forehead again while the other hand found its way to his own forehead. Harry's forehead definitely felt a lot warmer than his own.

"You're ill Harry!" he stated. "Do you want me to fetch someone? Professor Sprout is now in charge of the hospital wing, because Madame Pomfrey is still on her seminar and Professor Snape came down with the flu. I could fetch her if you want me to. Or I could get Professor McGonagall. She was released from the hospital wing this afternoon…"

But Harry shook his head. He didn't want to bother anybody and he didn't want anybody fussing over him.

"But you should at least take your temperature, Harry!" Neville continued.

And before Harry could object, Neville already went to the bathroom to retrieve the thermometer.

Neville sat back on the edge of Harry's bed, turned the device on and held it out for Harry "Open up!"

Harry didn't want to take his temperature, but when he opened his mouth to protest he was cut off by the thermometer being pushed in place under his tongue. Grudgingly Harry waited for the annoying thing to register and eyed Neville anxiously when he took it back and read it.

"38,6°C. That is a definitely a fever Harry!" Neville announced.

But Harry just shrugged "I don't care. Just let me sleep!"

Neville sighed. He knew that he should get Professor Sprout, but Harry was his friend and he didn't want to betray his friend.

"Okay, Harry, I won't fetch anyone." In his mind he added a 'not yet', as he knew, if Harry's condition worsened he had to fetch someone. Still, Neville couldn't just leave Harry like this.

So he hesitantly spoke up. "Does your throat hurt, Harry? I noticed that you put honey into your tea and only ate things that won't irritate your throat. I actually expected that your voice would be scratchy by now…"

Harry nodded. He was surprised that Neville had noticed. Then he cancelled the concealment charm and admitted "It is scratchy. I just didn't want anyone to notice…"

"Did you do anything else for your throat?" Neville wanted to know. "I drank a lot of cold water and gargled with salt water. It usually helps…" Seeing Neville's eyebrow rise questioningly, he continued "…I get this about twice a year. I use to gargle with olive oil, too. And drink my tea with lemon and honey…but I didn't have lemon and olive oil this time…"

Neville nodded approvingly. "Have you tried sage tea? Or ginger tea?"

Harry shook his head. Seeing that Harry's eyes were drooping, Neville got up and pulled Harry's blanket up around his shoulders.

"Well, try to sleep. Hope you'll feel better tomorrow. And if you need anything or feel worse don't hesitate to wake me up."

Harry nodded and before Neville left his side he was already fallen asleep.

***

When he woke up a couple hours later he found a mug with steaming tea on his night table. Next to the mug he found a little note in Neville's hand writing.

'This is sage tea with honey, lemon and ginger. Hope it's not too hot.'

Harry took the mug and smiled. He thirstily downed all of it and it actually felt really good against his sore throat.

'How did Neville do that?' Harry mused, but was too tired to put more thoughts to it and fell asleep again in a blink.

***

Just another hour later he woke up again - this time, freezing. He just couldn't get warm. His head hurt enormously, and actually his whole body felt sore. Harry wondered if a hot shower would help and got up. However he had to sit down again immediately as the room started to spin and the floor felt like it was made from cotton wool. Slowly he tried standing up again started to make his way to the bathroom. He only could make it in tiny shuffling steps and steadily holding onto anything to keep him upright, as an increasing dizziness, caused by a rising temperature, made him sway. Harry finally made it into the bathroom and had a hot shower, but it did not have the expected effect. He could still feel the fever he was obviously running, causing his head to spin and his muscles to ache. A glance into the mirror reflected an even paler than usual version of himself that looked oddly ill.

Eventually Harry made it back to bed relieved when he could lie down again. He turned around for hours trying to fall asleep again but failed to do so. He felt a lot worse than he had felt before. His head was throbbing, his throat felt like it was set on fire, even breathing hurt and the world around him seemed to be moving even lying down. He thought about asking Neville for help, but quickly dismissed the thought. He did not dare to move, as he felt more and more lightheaded and was afraid he would just faint when he tried to change his position only the slightest bit, let alone stand up. He just felt like dying.

***

However, Neville had woken up when Harry went to the bathroom. Now he lay there in the dark, listening, if Harry was alright. He didn't want to startle him by asking, so he just waited for his breathing to even out as a sign, that he had fallen asleep again. But Harry's breathing didn't even out. It was short, shallow and irregular. Neville started getting worried and slowly got up. Dawn had already begun and the dormitory was therefore dimly lit. He made his way over to Harry's bed and sat down on the edge of it again, surprised how much worse Harry looked compared to the evening.

"Shhh…" he whispered while laying a hand across Harry's forehead "you're burning up! We need to take your temperature again!"

Neville reached for the thermometer, glad, that he had left it on Harry's night table, turned it on and coaxed it under Harry's tongue. Harry shivered and was in obvious discomfort with the thermometer in his mouth.

"Try to relax, Harry, it will be over in a blink." Neville tried to calm him.

However, all calmness was gone as soon as Neville got a look at the result. That fever was way too high. Harry needed potions and someone to properly take care of him. Neville quickly pondered if he should fetch Professor Sprout since she was in charge of the hospital wing or if he could just get Professor McGonagall even if she still was recovering from her bout with the flu. Not wanting to leave Harry alone for long, Neville decided for Professor McGonagall. He quickly made it to her door and hesitantly knocked – relieved when the door opened not even a minute later.

"Yes, Neville, what is it?" McGonagall asked in a tired voice.

Neville hesitantly spoke up, urgency in his voice "I'm sorry to wake you, Professor, but we need your help. Harry is ill. His fever just spiked to 40.6°C".

Minerva followed Neville into the first year's dormitory. She conjured a stretcher, put Harry on it and floated him in front of her to the hospital wing; closely followed by a very nervous Neville. As soon as they entered the hospital wing they were greeted by a startled Pomona Sprout who was just bathing Severus Snape's forehead with a cold cloth.

"Minerva, what's the Matter" she asked immediately.

"Harry is pretty ill; his fever is 40.6°C…" Minerva explained, while she helped Pomona to put Harry into the bed next to Severus's. "…do you think he caught the flu as well?"

Pomona shrugged her shoulders "Maybe…but I thought he had the antidote. Let me call my friend at St. Mungos again. She was here before, to properly diagnose Severus's flu…" with that she turned to the fireplace and not even ten minutes later the healer had Harry diagnosed with a severe case of tonsillitis and left again after Pomona had profusely thanked her for coming over again.

Minerva, still surprised that Severus caught the flu from her, was shooed back to her bed by a now very busy Pomona who had two patients to take care of.

***

Eventually Pomona notice Neville who was still standing quietly in the corner right next to the entrance door, an anxious expression on his face.

Pomona couldn't help but smile. "Mr. Longbottom, I really enjoy seeing how much you care, but I would enjoy it even more if you didn't bring another patient every time…"

Neville just smiled back broadly "I guess I'm done now!"

And with that he left.

* * *

_Hope you liked it. If you did, I'd be great if you leave a comment... If you didn't like it, your comment will also be highly appreciated (especially if you tell me, what I could do to make it better)_


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